


Things that Change (or rather, don't)

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Origin Story, also umlauts bc German spellings, could also be interpreted as shippy idk, no time skips were harmed in the making of this fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 17:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1356601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren realizes he has some choices in life, and maybe that there are some things more exciting than being a doctor.</p><p>Origin story of how Eren and Armin met. A lot of headcanons are that Eren saved Armin while he was getting bullied so I wanted to try something a little different. (This was written before the interview. Who knew I had the situation a little backwards.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things that Change (or rather, don't)

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to my dad for knowing when fruits ripen, and not asking why I needed to know so badly in the middle of our school play's intermission. The benefits of having a tree geneticist for a dad, which is way cooler than being a doctor. Thanks to him I know an odd amount about the native vegetation of Indiana. 
> 
> When they're talking about names, they're the scientific names. See if you can guess what they're talking about!

Eren loved Sundays. All the chores from Saturday were done, and Mom didn't have any lessons to teach him. He got his pocket change for the week, even if he didn't really like to buy anything with it. Best of all, Sundays were the only days Dad didn't have work.

Dad was a doctor. That meant he helped people when they are sick. And Eren was certain that when he was older, he was going to be a doctor and help people too.

This would change.

But for then, he was content to just spend their day off together, even if that meant going shopping. Eren hated shopping, but if he wanted to spend as much time with his dad as possible, shopping it was.

 

_It was a warm summer afternoon, with a gentle sun peeking out from behind a blanket of clouds. Doctor Jäger and his young son of six strolled through the cobblestone-paved market, the former carrying a work briefcase and the latter a canvas bag of groceries._

_"Fresh fruit! Sold ripe off the tree!" a man in a yellowing apron called from behind a booth._

_"Isn't it a bit early for pears?" Grisha asked calmly, walking over and raising one up for inspection._

_The vendor's faced twisted in a sort of disappointed frown. "Maybe in other places. But Shiganshina pears always come midsummer."_

_"Early fall," Grisha corrected. "Try plums instead."_

_"Ahh... yes! Over here, juiciest you'll ever see..."_

 

Eren listened to his dad and the seller debate boredly, thoroughly engaged in a staredown with a misshapen peach. 'It has a nice color,' Eren thought abstractly, a mix of pale orange and pink. He couldn't quite tell where the two blend together because of the short fuzz that obscured it in a blurry halo. Eren was in the middle of trying to divine what color the hair was when he heard a coarse voice shouting to him.

 

_"DOCTOR JÄGER! OI, GRISHA! PLEASE!"_

_The doctor turned, sparing a glance to his son at his side before answering. "Yes. Over here!"_

_A blond man in his mid thirties bolted through the crowd, panting out a cry. "Grisha! My wife is... in the alleyways, we got attacked. Her arm is... wide open! We barely made it home, she's bleeding out-"_

_"Mr. Arlert! Calm down. I'll assess it when I get there," Grisha assured him sincerely. "I know the address, and I'll be there as soon as possible."_

_The man breathed out a raspy thank you before delving back through the crowd. Eren looked up at his father, who met him halfway._

_Grisha frowned slightly, causing his son to frown in turn. The doctor took a deep breath, setting his briefcase down and crouching to talk to him. "Eren, I'm sorry to cut our time short, but a friend of mine is sick and I have work to do. Be a good kid and take the groceries home to your mother, and stay there."_

_"No."_

_Grisha's frown deepened. "Eren-"_

_"No! You're always traveling to the other walls and doing work, even when we're just buying fruit! Why can't I spend any time with you?!" the boy pouted, fists at his sides._

_"Eren, please, just do what I say. One of my friends is very sick and she needs my help."_

_"Then let me help too!"_

_They were wasting time they didn't have and Grisha knew it. Eren had that familiar look in his eye, the one that meant he was too determined to be talked out of it. Finally, Grisha's displeased grimace softened. "Eren, you said you want to be a doctor when you're older?" The boy nodded earnestly. "All right then. You can come and watch me work. Just don't get in the way or things might be dangerous, and I don't want you to get hurt."_

 

Eren broke into a smile. He was finally going to see his dad working! Knowing what he did was nothing compared to actually watching.

Eren picked up the grocery bag, holding it in one arm and linking the other with his dad's. They ran through the streets, taking a sharp left near the riverside and straight up to one of the houses. Dad didn't even knock. That's strange. He was always so polite with guests. 'This really must be serious', Eren thought excitedly. 'Maybe Dad will do something cool!'

 

_"I'm here," Grisha announced, even if it was unnecessary. He felt Eren creep up beside his leg._

_"Back here!" Mr. Arlert hollered back from the living room. Grisha followed the sound, briefcase in hand, navigating through the kitchen with Eren trailing afterward. Mrs. Arlert was laid out on the couch with her left arm out, resting on a table. Grisha set up next to it._

 

It wasn't too bad until they undid the bandages.

A long, red line trailed down her bicep from a shallow gouge in her shoulder. Dried blood caked the wound, rusty red against her pallid skin in patches like dry pigment on a canvas. Dad didn't even blink though. Eren watched as he doused a linen rag in alcohol, the woman wincing as he cleaned out the wound. The cloth turned pink and then crimson, revealing a thick line of red all along her upper arm. The wound was shallow but the blood wouldn't stop seeping out.

It was at this moment that Eren decided maybe he doesn't quite fully understand what "helping people when they are sick" meant. He took a step back, still close enough to see despite his attempts to avoid looking. He wasn't quite sure how long he'd stood there, an interloper as the woman sobbed, the man at her side, and Dad working with a stern face. Eren was lost and useless, couldn't help or be helped, only futilely resist the urge to stare.

He wasn't scared. Absolutely not.

The man turned to him with an uneasy smile. "Hello, Eren. You don't have to watch just because your dad's here. Perhaps you'd rather go upstairs? Our son is up in his room, you should go talk to him."

Eren wasn't quite sure how to answer that question. Even if he didn't want to, he still felt a bit obligated to stay. Still, he knew what adults mean when they say "perhaps." It means they want you to do what they say.

Eren found himself walking towards the staircase before he could voice a reply. Walking quickly, he didn't even looking back as he clambered up the stairs and looked around.

There was a bedroom on the left, with an old man sleeping in it. Eren figured that he's not the son the man was talking about. There was also a hallway on his right, with three doors. One was ajar with light coming from inside.

Eren tiptoed over to the door, in case there were more bloodied patients waiting in the corner. Luckily there weren't, just a kid sitting on the floor of his bedroom. They were pretty small, with a gray jacket and blond hair that looked like the sunshine through Mom's lace curtains. Their eyes flittered back and forth over the words of their book, which was wide enough to splay across his entire lap and over. They seemed harmless enough. Eren stepped inside with a small "hey."

The kid jumped back like he came too close to a fire, shut his book with a quick snap, and hid it unsuccessfully behind his back. "Hi," they said back.

Eren can tell it's a boy now. At least he thinks so. The kid's bangs curtained wide blue eyes, filled with something between anxiety and curiosity. They're wearing pants though and not a lot of girls wear pants, but he's all skinny and... weak. He looked like his mom, the sick person downstairs, and just as shaky.

"I'm Eren. My dad's here. He's a doctor."

"My name's Armin. My dad's a scholar."

"A what?"

"A scholar. He studies... things," Armin trailed off.

Eren eyed him suspiciously. "What things?"

"I'm not supposed to say. It's... I can't say." Armin glanced at the bookcase beside him. Eren did too. It was filled with books with one empty space left open, the corner of the missing book peeking out from behind Armin's jacket. They were all very thick and had words along the spine Eren didn't recognize. He tried to annunciate one with mixed results.

"Biology," Armin corrected.

"What's that?" Eren asked with piqued curiosity.

"It's the study of plants and animals."

"Hm. That's..." Eren paused to think. "Pretty boring."

"No it's not!" Armin shouted defensively, so unexpectedly loud that Eren shivered in surprise.

Eren threw his shoulders back and yelled in response. "Yeah it is. The only animals are cows and ducks and squirrels and the only plants are grass and trees. That's boring. I'm gonna be a doctor instead."

"It's not boring! And he doesn't study farm animals!"

"Then what other animals are there?"

"Lots! Ones that crawl and leap and live underground or underwater and swing from tails and run faster than horses! Trees so tall you can't see the top! Flowers that droop and cling and change colors! So many animals and plants and places out there that we just can't see!" Armin challenged. "What do you think is outside these walls?!"

Both the outburst and the question caught Eren off guard. "I... haven't really thought about it," he replied cautiously, before resolving into a solid frown.

"Nobody ever does," Armin spat back, voice lowered dangerously, scowling at his feet.

Eren quieted his voice in return. "Everyone knows you die if you leave the walls though, so what's the point?"

"The point?! The POINT?!" Armin looked infuriated. "The point is why would anyone want to live caged, with only a city to live in with these same 'cows and ducks and grass' when there's so much beauty and wonder and impossibility out there?! Who knows how big the world is, how many secrets are just waiting to be uncovered, and the only reason we can't see them is because everybody's so happy to live with the same routine set a hundred years ago! Yeah! It's dangerous! I know! But if the titans are so strange and wild and different then everything else must be too! There's no way humanity can just stay in here forever anyway! Droughts or floods could kill the crops and what could we do? Nothing! I don't care if it's suicide, I can't live like this. Not when I know what's really out there."Armin was red-faced and panting, but there's something new in his spiteful glare that wasn't there before. It isn't hate, despite his tone of voice. He's too meek for pride.

Determination. Cold and raw. Eren knew it well.

So he stepped further inside and sat down. "Tell me more."

"I..." Armin was prepared to get punched, to get called a heretic and a suicidal maniac. Not this. "I... I don't know if I can."

"You seem to know a lot about it," Eren pointed out.

"I guess so," Armin admitted hesitantly. "But I'm not even supposed to know about it. It's illegal."

"Tell him." The old man whom Eren saw sleeping before appeared in the doorway. "We know the Jägers well enough. It's no secret to Grisha. The kid looks interested actually." He motioned to Eren. "Make some friends."

"Grandpa? But... okay." Armin looked shyly at his grandfather, who smiled and left.

Silence hung over the room until Armin brought the book out from behind his back. "Here. We can start at the beginning."

 

\-----

 

"What's that?"

"I don't know, the name's too long to say. But it's a kind of cat."

"That doesn't look like a cat."

"It is! Dad said all the ones that start with the f-e-l-i-s are cats."

"Then why is it so big? And have all that fur around its head? It looks like a sun."

 

\-----

 

"Why is everything white?"

"That's all ice and snow."

"All of it?"

"I think so?" Armin didn't sound too sure. "Maybe there's air underneath that pushes it so high up. Or is it like a really big hill?"

"Over 8000 meters? I can't believe it even exists!"

 

\-----

 

"Woah! What are those?"

"Fish."

Eren stared, waiting for elaboration.

"Oh! Uh, there isn't really anything I can compare them to. But they live underwater."

"How? Don't they choke?"

"Drown, and no."

"Why not?"

"I... I don't know. Maybe they can breathe water like we breathe air."

"Hmm. Wait, where is there enough water for them to live? Do they live in our wells?" Eren cringed.

Armin shrugged. "Maybe. But there's also rivers and lakes and strea-"

"What's a lake?"

"Oh, I'll show you! Lemme find it..."

 

\-----

 

"I take it back. Trees are cool."

Armin tried not to look too smug.

 

\-----

 

"I wish the birds here looked like that."

"Me too. But they only live in rainforests."

"A rainforest... A forest where it rains a lot?"

"Yeah. But they're a lot different from normal forests. They grow really tall and have lizards and frogs and cats and snakes and bugs and a lot of others."

 

\-----

 

"This next one's my favorite page. Ready?"

"Hey. Before you do, can I... apologize? This isn't boring. This is really amazing. I can't believe nobody knows." Eren scratched his scalp nervously. "I guess I feel bad. I don't really know why though."

"It's okay. You know," Armin said, pushing the book away and turned to face Eren. "I'm sorry I yelled. Nobody believes me. That I'm just a stupid kid who doesn't know anything."

"I'm glad you yelled. Otherwise I wouldn't know all these things. And you're the smartest person I've ever met!"

Armin tugged at a lock of his hair. "Not really. My dad's way smarter. Your dad must be too. I was so scared about Mom but he's going to help her."

Eren blinked. He'd totally forgotten about his dad, or what was going on downstairs completely. "That's right. He's pretty smart I guess. But anybody can be a doctor. I wanna see the world with you. That's way more exciting."

 

\-----

 

"It's called an ocean."

 

\-----

 

_Grisha had finished patching up Mrs. Arlert in a little less than an hour. She was to stay in bed for a few days and refrain from using her left arm or any hard labor. It would heal in two weeks._

_He refused payment despite the Arlerts' protests (it wasn't that they didn't like owing people money but that they hated being a burden. Grisha assured them they were not) but stayed for tea. Mr. Arlert reported that his son had gone upstairs, and Grandfather mentioned the book._

_"Eren's a trustworthy kid. And it's time Armin found some friends," Mrs. Arlert commented from the couch._

_"I could say the same on Eren's behalf. He's troublesome but he's a survivor."_

 

\-----

 

"Bye Armin. Bye Mr. and Mrs. Arlert," Eren chirped from the porch. Grisha motioned for him to follow, and he did dutifully. Groceries in his arms, he turned to his dad as they walked home.

"Dad, I don't want to be a doctor."

This wouldn't change.

When his dad raised an eyebrow with a skeptical look, Eren smiled in return. "I want to see the outside world with Armin."

This wouldn't change either.


End file.
